Warp knitting machine, particularly raschel machine

ABSTRACT

A warp knitting machine comprises warp knitting-needle means defining a needle zone, a device for filling weft threads into the web being knitted, said device having movable weft-thread storers and thread guide members for placing the weft threads into said storers, each of said guide members comprising a plurality of weft thread guide means for successively seizing respective weft threads, and weft-exchanging members coactively coordinated to said respective guide means for readying several weft threads of given length to be successively seized by each of said guide means.

United States Patent I first, deceased et a].

45] Mar. 14, 1972 July 26, 1969 Germany....

WARP KNITTING MACHINE, PARTICULARLY RASCHEL MACHINE Inventors: 'stega nliirst, deceased late of Moenchengladbach, Germany? Stefanie Dormanns, Webgerg; Hans-Joachim 51 g heirs, Moenchengladbach, both of Germany Assignee: W. Schlafhorst Co., Moenchengladbach,

Germany Filed: July 24, 1970 Appl. No.: 58,008

Foreign Application Priority Data 11 s c1 g /s Field or Search ..66/84, 85; 139/122, 127

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,364,701 1/1968 Carman ..66/84 3,523,432 8/1970 Vajda et al ..66/85 x FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 900,408 7/1962 Great Britain ..66/85 158,530 4/1957 Sweden ..66/85 Primary Examiner--Louis K. Rimrodt AttorneyCurt M. Avery, Arthur E. Wilfond, Herbert L. Lefner and Daniel J. Tick ABSTRACT A warp knitting machine comprises warp knitting-needle means defining a needle zone, a device for filling weft threads into the web being knitted, said device having movable weftthread storers and thread guide members for placing the weft threads into saidstorers, each of said guide members comprising a plurality of weft thread guide means for successively seizing respective weft threads, and weft-exchanging members coactively coordinated to said respective guide means for readying several weft threads of given length to be successively seized by each of said guide means.

5 Claims, 13 Drawing Figures WARP KNITTING MACHINE, PARTICULARLY RASCIIEI. MACHINE This invention relates to warp knitting machines, particularly those of the Raschel type, which are equipped with a device for filling weft threads into the knitted loops.

In a more particular aspect, the present invention relates to warp knitting machines in which the weft threads to be filled into the web being knitted are supplied to the knitting-needle zone with the aid of thread storers, and the weft threads are placed into the thread storers by means of thread-guiding members. Machines of this type are disclosed in the copending applications, Ser. Nos. 854,974, filed Sept. 3, 1969, 861,250, filed Sept. 26, 1969, 872,705, filed Oct. 30, 1969 and 19,431, filed Mar. 13,1970.

According to these copending applications, the zone of the knitting needles in a warp knitting machine, especially a Raschel machine, is supplied with weft threads from movable thread storers. To reduce the speed of thread travel from the supply reel to the storer, the thread-guiding members have been provided with two individual thread guide means so that two weft threads can be simultaneously pulled off respective two supply reels and can be alternately inserted into the thread storers, each thread guide means always placing a weft thread from one and the same supply reel into the storers.

It is an object of the present invention to improve warp knitting machines of the above-mentioned type so as to afford inserting different weft threads into the thread storers, such as threads of respectively different kinds or colors.

To this end, and in accordance with a feature of the present invention, each thread-guiding means is provided with a weftexchanging member for selectively readying a plurality of weft threads of given length which are to be successively seized by each of the guiding means. As a consequence, each of the thread guide means can sequentially enter into the thread storers a determined length of respectively different threads or, if desired, of the same thread.

In cases where the weft exchange members always present threads of the same type to the thread guide means to be seized by the latter, the invention has the advantage that, when the weft supply reels become depleted, the change from the empty reel to a full supply reel can be performed more readily and expeditiously than in the machines previously proposed.

The weft exchange members can be so arranged that they, together with the appertaining weft supply reels, are transported in the same sense as the thread storers, for example, rotate like the thread storers. According to another feature of the invention, however, it is preferably to mount the weft exchange members, independently of the movement of the thread storers, beside the rotary path of the thread storers. In the latter case, a particularly simple and advantageous machine design is achieved if, according to still another feature of the invention, the weft exchange members are tiltably or shiftably mounted upon fixed fastening and bearing means located beside the travel path of the thread storers, so that the weft exchange members place the weft threads near the thread guide means at always the same locality at which the threads are then seized by the guide means.

As mentioned, the present invention may be advantageously applied for simplifying the exchange of the weft supply reels upon depletion of the reels, or also for filling into the web an always repetitive sequence of different weft threads. If only either one or both of these objects are to be pursued, the positional change of the weft exchange members can be automatically controlled in dependence upon the filling degree of, or the residue still contained on, the weft supply reel or in dependence upon the length or the number of the weft threads being placed into the thread storers. According to a further object of the invention, it may also serve to produce any desired pattern or design of the knitted web being produced with the aid of different weft threads. In the latter case it is preferable, according to another feature of the invention, to control the positional change of the weft exchange members in dependence upon a pattern device, so that the weft threads are selectively presented to the thread guide means to be seized by the latter. Such a pattern device may consist of pattern discs, pattern chains, punchcards, film memories, magnetic tape memories or other devices proposed for warp knitting and other textile-fabricating machinery.

The weft thread placed in ready position by the weft exchange member and seized by the yarn guide means may be pulled off the supply reel in such a manner that the predetermined length of thread corresponds to one or several of the loops of thread placed into the thread storers. According to another feature of the invention a further improvement of the pattern is afforded by having the thread storers constituted by thread-holding means which are guided from both sides of the resulting web, i.e. from the regions of the respective web edges, into the needle-zone region along a circulatory path, the yam-holding means being capable of receiving a length of weft thread that corresponds each time substantially to the width of the knitted fabric. In this case, therefore, the predetermined length of thread to be successively seized by each of the thread-guiding means, and to be pulled off the supply reel and to be placed into the two-thread holding means, is at least approximately equal to the width of the knitted fabric being produced. Consequently, a different weft thread can be filled into the fabric with each shot, i.e. each individual filling operation, notwithstanding the fact that each movement of a thread guide member, depending upon the number of the thread guide means mounted on that member, affords simultaneously placing a multiplicity of weft threads into the thread storer assembly.

The above-mentioned and further objects, advantages and features of the invention will be apparent from the following description of embodiments of the invention, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which by way of example illustrate a preferreddesign of a Raschel machine according to the invention.

FIG. 1 is a schematic and a partly cross-sectional illustration of the machine;

FIG. 2 shows schematically a view onto the needle zone, thread storers and thread guide means of the same machine;

FIG. 3 is a schematic and sectional. view corresponding to FIG. 2, the section being along the line IIIIII in FIG. 2;

FIGS. 4, 5 and 6 are schematic and explanatory diagrams showing the insertion of the weft threads into the storer assembly and a weft thread exchange in three difi'erent phases of operation, respectively;

FIG. 7 shows separately and partly in section the weft exchange member together with a schematic representation of the appertaining control means;

FIG. 8 is a lateral view of the same weft exchange member;

FIGS. 9 and 10 illustrate on larger scale the thread-guiding means and their mounting in a machine otherwise corresponding to FIGS. 1-8;

FIG. llll is a sectional view along the line XI-XI of FIG. 10;

FIGS. 112 and 13 are diagrammatic and explanatory illustrations relating to thread storer and thread-holding means in a machine otherwise corresponding to the preceding illustrations.

The frame structure of the Raschel machine illustrated in FIG. 1 comprises lateral mounting walls of which only one is visible at l and which are interconnected by traverse structures 33 and 67. The warp threads are supplied from respective warp beams3d,. 35 from which the threads 36, 37 pass over spring whip members 38, 38 to eye needles 39, 40 and thence to tongue needles 31. The finished knitted web 38 is pulled over a stripper sheet fixedly joined with the sidewall l and passes through rotatably mounted and driven feed rollers 29, 30 onto the fabric beam 32. The needles 31 are fastened in known manner by means of a needle bar 2ll on a carrier 23 whose lower end has a pivot 24 joined with a drag lever 25. The drag lever 25 is rotatably mounted on the pivot shaft 26 fixedly connected with the wall 1. The needle bar 21 is lifted and lowered by a lever 20 pivoted at 22 to the carrier 23. The lever 20 is rotatable about a stationary pivot 19 and engages, as a follower, a cam 18 joined with the main drive shaft 117 of the machine.

Seated on the main drive shaft 17 behind the cam 18 is another cam which is engaged by a follower lever 701 pivotally mounted about an axle 702. The top end of lever 701 forms a stabbing comb which operates to introduce the weft threads into the needle zone. During this operation, the lever 701 takes the weft threads out of the thread storer 800 which is seated on a shaft 803 and driven from the main shaft 17 through an intermediate shaft 14 and an endless chain 813, the rotation of the storer device 800 being in the direction of the arrow S.

A thread guide member 900 (FIGS. 1, 2) is rotatably mounted in a transverse carrier 9 and is placed in rotation through a chain sprocket 1 1, an endless chain 12 and another sprocket 13 driven from the shaft 14. The thread guide member 900 is equipped with a number of thread guide means 901-908 of which the thread guide means 901-904 are schematically illustrated as having seized the weft threads fl to f4 (FIG. 1) in order to place them into the thread storer 800 during rotation of member 900. The axle 6 (FIGS. 1, 2, 3,) of the thread guide member 900 is tubular and coaxially traversed by a rod fastened to a transverse carrier 9a (FIGS. 1, 2). The free end of the rod is fixedly secured to a sprocket gear 909. An endless chain 912 (FIG. 1) is trained over gear 909 and over two further sprocket gears 910 and 911. The gears 910 and 911 are fixedly mounted on carrier rods 913 and 914 (FIGS. 1, 2), which hold the thread guide means 901-904 and 905-908 respectively. The two rods 913 and 914 are rotatably mounted in the thread guide member 900 with the aid of bearings 915 and 916.

As soon as the thread guide member 900 is placed in rotation, the gears 910 and 911 operate the chain 912 and thereby impart mutually opposed rotational movements to the respective holder rods 913 and 914. The transmission ratio of gear 909 to gears 910, 911 is chosen to be 1:1. Hence, a single full rotation of the thread guide member 90 occurs simultaneously with a full single rotation of the holder rods 913 and 914.

The diagrammatic illustrations in FIGS. 2 and 3 may serve to more fully explain the operation involving the insertion of the weft threads into the thread storer device.

Shown in FIG. 2 is the finished knitted web 28 as well as the zone of the knitting needles 31. The thread storer comprises a number of thread-holding means which are positioned on both sides respectively of the web and are movable from the respective edge regions of the web on a circulatory path into the needle-zone region. Each of the web-holding means serves to receive a length of weft thread that corresponds to the width of the knitted fabric. These thread-holding means will be more fully described hereinafter with reference to FIG. 13.

The thread-holding means in the illustrated embodiments are guided on a circulatory travel path by virtue of the fact that they are arranged on disc-shaped storer members 801 and 802 fastened on a shaft 803. For lucid illustration, the threadguiding member 900 in FIGS. 2 and 3 is shown in a position in which it has nearly completed a rotation of 90 relative to the position shown in FIG. 1. As a consequence of such rotation the yarn guide means 901 and 904 have pulled the threads fl to f4 from the weft exchange members 917 to 920 over the entire width of the fabric and have placed these threads into the thread-holding means of the storer member 801 and 802.

This performance will be understood from FIG. 3 which shows the same position of the yarn guide member 900 as FIG. 2. It will be recognized how the thread fl is pulled from the yarn guide means 901, during its rotational travel along the circle 901a, out of the exchange member 917 in accordance with the sequence represented by the dot-and-dash lines fla to flc. The center point of the circle 901a is displaced toward the left with respect to the axis of the thread guide member 900. This is because the thread guide means 901 to 904 and 905 to 908 always point in the direction of the weft exchange members 917 to 920 due to the above-described rotational operation performed by the carrier rods 913, 914 and effective through gears 910, 911, chain 912 and gear 909 (FIG. 1). In the position shown by a full line in FIG. 3 the thread fl is placed into thread-holding means of the storer members 801 and 802 and is severed by a scissorlike cutter 921 in known manner. During the further rotational travel of the thread guide member 900, for example up to the position shown by a dot-and-dash line, the thread guide means 905 and 908 enter into the region of the weft exchange members 917 and 920, whereafter the performance is repeated.

The individual operational phases sequentially occurring when the weft threads are placed into the yarn storer will be further explained with reference to FIGS. 4, 5 and 6.

In FIG. 4 the yarn guide means 901 has placed the thread fl into the two storer members 801 and 802, and the cutter 921 now severs the thread. In FIG. 5 the weft exchange member 917 is thereafter displaced so that another thread is made ready to be pulled into the thread-holding means. This phase of operation is completed at the latest when the thread guide means 905 has reached the position illustrated in FIG. 6 so that now the thread denoted by f5 is seized by the thread guide means 905 and, during the further rotation, can likewise be placed into the now free thread-holding means of the storer members 801 and 802 which in the meantime have continued their rotational travel.

FIG. 7 serves to explain how the weft exchange member 917 can be displaced. As illustrated in FIG. 8, the weft exchange member 917 comprises a generally T-shaped structure 917a which, in the case of this particular embodiment, is provided with two openings or eyes for two different threads f1 and 15 to be placed in ready positions. Of course, the structure 9170 may also be designed for more, preferably four, different threads to be readied. The structure 9170 is fastened on an axle 9l7b revolvable in a stationary bearing 9170. Mounted on the free end of the axle 917b is a spur gear 917d meshing with a gear segment 917e which is rotatable about a pivot pin 917f by means of a pattern disc 922. Depending upon the design of the pattern disc 922, the desired opening (eye) of the structure 917a is placed into the vicinity of the corresponding thread guide means so that the particular thread passing through the pattern eye will be seized.

The above-mentioned thread guide means 901 to 904 will now be more fully described with reference to FIGS. 9, 10 and 11. As will be seen, the thread guide means 901 to 904 are mounted on the carrier rod 913. The sprocket gear 910 is fastened on the carrier rod 913 so as to be fixed relative thereto. The carrier rod 913 is revolvably joumaled in the thread guide member 900 by means of a bearing 915.

FIG. 11 shows a cross section through one of the clamplike thread guide means which are under spring tension tending to close the holding clamp. The illustrated bottom portion 9030 of the thread guide means 903 is inserted from the gripper side into a groove 913a of the holder rod 913 and is rearwardly secured by a pin 90311. For opening the thread guide means to receive or release the thread, an axle 9131: is axially displaceable in a bore of the holder rod 913. The axle 913b has respective bores located at the height of the thread guide means. Each of these bores is traversed by a pin 9130 which engages the'top portion 903a and can glide in an elongated opening 913d of the holder rod 913.

For opening and closing the thread guide means, the axle 913b is biased by the spring tension of the thread guide means. If desired, an additional spring may be used which has one end resting against a cam 923. FIG. 9 illustrates the closed position and FIG. 10 the open position of the thread guide means 901 to 904. The cam 923 may be given such a design that the thread guide means are each time opened for a short interval whenever a thread is to be seized or released. However, the thread guide means may also be kept open during the entire period of time in which no thread need be held. Furthermore, any desired cleaning devices may be located along the rotational path of the thread guide means, for example brushes or air nozzles which remove any adhering lint, thread residues, paraffin or seizing agents.

FIG. 12 illustrates a storer member 801 into which the weft threads fl to f4 are just to be inserted from above in accordance with FIGS. 2 to 6. This storer member 801 rotates about the axle 803 in the direction of the arrow S so that already inserted thread can be taken out of the thread holder means 920 by the stabbing-comb levers 701 and can be transposed into the needle zone according to FIG. 1. in order to make certain that during this travel the weft threads will reliably remain under tension, the two outer elements of the stabbing comb, located in the vicinity of the web edge, may be designed as clamping members.

The thread-holding means 924 proper of the storer members 801i and 802 are shown on larger scale in FIG. 13. In this case, the thread-holding means are constituted by the fact that the storer member 801 is composed of two discs 801a and 801b whose respective peripheries have a toothed design and which are angularly displaced relative to each other in the manner illustrated. Consequently, the threads f1 and f2 are clamped at the overlapping locations.

The invention is not limited to the illustrated design of the embodiment chosen as an example. Thus, the thread-holding means 924, instead of being mounted on disc-shaped storer members 0011 and 802, may also be arranged on rotating transport chains or the like in a manner known as such. Furthermore, the thread-holding means 924 may be designed as constrainedly controlled gripper members or as pneumatic grippers, thus becoming similar in principle to the thread-guiding means 901 to 908. Such and other modifications will be obvious upon a study of this disclosure to those skilled in the art and are readily applicable without departing from the essential features of the invention and within the scope of the claims annexed hereto.

What is claimed is:

ll. Warp knitting machine comprising warp knitting-needle means defining a needle zone, a device for filling weft threads into the web being knitted, said device having movable weftthread storers and thread guide members for placing the weft threads into said storers, each of said guide members comprising a plurality of weft-thread guide means for successively seizing respective weft threads, and weft-exchanging members coactively coordinated to said respective guide means for readying several weft threads of given length to be successively seized by each of said guide means.

2. Warp knitting machine according to claim ll, wherein said weft-exchanging members are mounted independently of the travel of said weft-thread storers at localities beside the travel path of said storers.

3. Warp knitting machine according to claim ll, comprising fixed bearing means on which said respective weft-exchanging members are movably mounted.

4. Warp knitting machine according to claim 3, comprising pattern control means connected with said weft-exchanging members for positionally controlling said exchanging members.

5. Warp knitting machine according to claim 3, defining a travel path for the web and comprising weft-thread-holding means for receiving respective weft threads whose individual length corresponds substantially to the width of the web, said holding means being displaceable from locations on opposite sides of the web travel path along a circulatory path into the region of said needle zone. 

1. Warp knitting machine comprising warp knitting-needle means defining a needle zone, a device for filling weft threads into the web being knitted, said device having movable weft-thread storers and thread guide members for placing the weft threads into said storers, each of said guide members comprising a plurality of weft-thread guide means for successively seizing respective weft threads, and weft-exchanging members coactively coordinated to said respective guide means for readying several weft threads of given length to be successively seized by each of said guide means.
 2. Warp knitting machine according to claim 1, wherein said weft-exchanging members are mounted independently of the travel of said weft-thread storers at localities beside the travel path of said storers.
 3. Warp knitting machine according to claim 1, comprising fixed bearing means on which said respective weft-exchanging members are movably mounted.
 4. Warp knitting machine according to claim 3, comprising pattern control means connected with said weft-exchanging members for positionally controlling said exchanging members.
 5. Warp knitting machine according to claim 3, defining a travel path for the web and comprising weft-thread-holding means for receiving respective weft threads whose individual length corresponds substantially to the width of the web, said holding means being displaceable from locations on opposite sides of the web travel path along a circulatory path into the region of said needle zone. 